Returning home, the sky outside was fully bright, but the living room curtains were half-drawn, slightly dimming the light.
Shi Xinyu changed her shoes and walked quietly into the room. The little cat that usually greeted her at the door was curled up fast asleep on the sofa.
The cat’s face was very round, its fur fluffy, the smart tufts of fur on its ear tips slightly erect, and its pink nose was faintly moist.
The living room was quiet; only the distant, buzzing chirping of cicadas, early heralds of the coming summer, could be faintly heard through the glass.
Shi Xinyu crept closer. She lay on the sofa, half-closing her eyes.
She seemed to be recalling that humid, hot feeling again.
…
Summer, cicadas, soda.
These three things interconnected to form summer vacation.
Shi Xinyu loved music, especially the guitar.
On the way back from her training class, the trees were lush green, the sunlight dull white and blazing. The cicadas clung to the trees, loudly releasing their short lives.
Everything felt dreamlike, like a bubble.
She grew up with her grandmother; her mother was busy with business and missed every stage of her growth.
Little Shi Xinyu, carrying the guitar that was a bit too heavy for her, stood in front of the convenience store, conflicted.
The sodas in the freezer had various colors, and water droplets condensed on the glass bottles, making them look exceptionally clear and cool.
Shi Xinyu, however, was agonizing over whether she should buy lime soda or orange soda.
After much deliberation, orange soda narrowly won.
Shi Xinyu loved the guitar, the sea, and the crisp click of the marble dropping when a soda bottle was opened.
“Fatty is still drinking soda!”
“If you drink any more, you won’t have any clothes to wear.”
A group of skinny children walked together. The keys tied around their necks with red wool jingled, making a particularly loud noise.
The group’s laughter was piercing.
The laughter mixed with the cicada’s chirping was especially annoying.
Shi Xinyu clenched her fist. After handing the coin to the owner, she picked up the orange soda.
“What’s it to you?”
The boys were half a head shorter than Shi Xinyu. The keys hanging from their necks reflected a dazzling light, seemingly symbolizing something.
Shi Xinyu held the orange soda. Water droplets on the glass bottle ran down her fingers, forming a tiny spot of dark gray moisture on the ground before disappearing.
A black and white shadow suddenly leaped from the wall, landing accurately on the shoulder of the leading boy. The immense impact scattered the group like startled birds.
The keys around the boy’s neck clattered as he dodged, completely out of rhythm.
The cat finally landed at Shi Xinyu’s feet.
It was large, with long fur and a tail held high. Its golden, glass-bead-like eyes stared at her unblinking.
Shi Xinyu thought she had to repay this cat.
She bought the largest sausage in the supermarket and, with the slightly warmed orange soda, went with the cat to a nearby secret base.
A towering tree stood there, and the grass was verdant.
Shi Xinyu sat directly on the ground. She tore open the sausage wrapper and called the black and white long-haired cat to eat.
The cat ate very reservedly. After finishing the last bite, it licked its pink nose.
And Shi Xinyu finally got to hear the desired “clack,” as the carbonated beverage bubbled up enthusiastically.
She took a sip.
The soda was sickly sweet, and when poured down her throat like that, it was somewhat stinging and choking. Shi Xinyu looked up, blinked, and bright, glistening tears shone in the sun.
…
As soon as Ying Miaomiao woke up, she found Shi Xinyu sleeping beside her. Her long hair was slightly curly, appearing faintly red in the sunlight.
She noticed that a tear seemed to be clinging to the corner of Shi Xinyu’s eye.
“Meow?”
Did she have a nightmare?
Ying Miaomiao peered out, wanting to use the cleanest fur on her face to wipe Shi Xinyu’s tear.
She stood on the edge, her tail held high, trying hard to stretch her head to reach Shi Xinyu’s face, but Ying Miaomiao seemed to have overestimated the length of her neck.
After stretching for a long time, only her whiskers brushed Shi Xinyu’s face. Annoyed, she was about to change direction when her foot suddenly slipped, and she fell right into Shi Xinyu’s arms.
The little cat’s weight was directly proportional to the quality of her food.
Ying Miaomiao was no longer the skinny cat Shi Xinyu first met; she was now heavy. Luckily, the distance wasn’t high, so she didn’t severely injure her.
The cat’s fur was dry and soft, and her paw pads, when placed on a person, felt like four little steel bars.
Ying Miaomiao suddenly became airborne. Shi Xinyu instinctively hugged her close. She wiped the corner of her eye with one hand, making Ying Miaomiao momentarily wonder if the tear she saw earlier was an illusion.
“Miaomiao woke up her big sister, you little naughty cat.”
Shi Xinyu placed Ying Miaomiao on the sofa, her soft white belly facing her.
Ying Miaomiao blinked, feeling a little guilty. She did wake Shi Xinyu up, but wasn’t it because she saw her having a nightmare?
“A naughty cat must be punished.”
With that, Shi Xinyu buried her face in Ying Miaomiao’s belly, inhaling the little cat’s scent, a mix of sunshine and grass.
Ying Miaomiao resisted, struggling to flip over, but Shi Xinyu held her firmly in place.
While burying her face in the cat’s belly, this naughty woman even self-righteously declared, “Little kitties are meant to have their bellies buried by big sister.”
Ying Miaomiao was furious. She muttered a few ineffective complaints. After Shi Xinyu released her restraint, she lightly nipped her fingertip before immediately jumping onto the cat tower.
The sharp teeth bit down forcefully, but other than leaving a wet ring of saliva and a slight bite mark, there was no other trace.
Seeing the cat’s exasperated look, Shi Xinyu smiled. Her amber eyes seemed to be shining, like a fleeting epiphyllum blooming on a summer night. The smile vanished quickly.
“Thank you, little cat.”
Ying Miaomiao found this strange. Why would Shi Xinyu suddenly say that? Was she thanking her because the fur on her belly was dense and comfortable to bury one’s face in?
But a polite cat responds even when confused.
“Meow aow.”
You’re welcome.
…
Night fell.
After exercising and showering, Shi Xinyu was lying on the bed when Ying Miaomiao quietly sneaked over.
The little cat tried everything, making Shi Xinyu’s phone turn on and off, but each time she failed to see the password.
She hated it.
Modern smartphones were too convenient. Fingerprint and facial unlocking were entirely unfriendly to a cat. She completely forgot that the little cat secretly trying to see someone’s password was also a cat with bad intentions.
Finally, while unlocking the phone, a prompt popped up saying, ‘To prevent forgetting the password, it must be entered once every 72 hours.’
Ying Miaomiao’s eyes widened, terrified of missing even a single digit of Shi Xinyu’s phone password.
Her password was six digits: 070913.
A very awkward password.
Ying Miaomiao was practically in tears. Although she had already sent a message to her family, not being able to know outside information was a huge bother for her.
Now she just needed to wait for an opportunity to communicate with modern society again. How could she not be excited?
Shi Xinyu’s sleep was always regular; she didn’t have a habit of staying up late. After being a timeless, primitive cat for so long, Ying Miaomiao’s routine had also become somewhat similar to Shi Xinyu’s.
She lay on Shi Xinyu’s bedside, eyes closed, but her occasionally twitching ears still betrayed one thing—she was pretending to sleep.
Although her body was very tired, Ying Miaomiao felt uncontrollably excited at the thought of being able to go online.
She closed her eyes. It wasn’t until Shi Xinyu’s breathing became even, and after waiting a little longer, that Ying Miaomiao finally opened her eyes.
Her pupils were shining brightly, seemingly emitting a faint blue light in the dim room. She tiptoed to turn on the phone placed next to the pillow, and a soft white light illuminated the screen.
Ying Miaomiao, like a thief, glanced at the sleeping Shi Xinyu. Seeing no sign of her waking up, she unlocked the phone from memory.
Ying Miaomiao was very familiar with the internal structure of Shi Xinyu’s phone apps; after all, she had shamelessly spied many times to uncover secrets.
But looking and actually using it were different.
A push notification suddenly sounded, and the vibrating noise made Ying Miaomiao’s body tremble. She quickly closed the phone and pushed it back to its original spot, then leaned close to Shi Xinyu to see if she had been woken up by the noise.
After a long while, she dared to turn the phone on again.
But this time, taking a careful look, Ying Miaomiao nearly jumped up.
Within just a few days of fermentation, the ‘Hengyu Group Crown Prince’ incident had several trending topics constantly on the top of the search list, including the decline of Hengyu Group’s stock.
She suddenly recalled Shi Xinyu’s action of recording the conversation that day. Perhaps a bigger drama was unfolding. Ying Miaomiao suddenly felt a little nervous, but more than that, she was excited.
For an ordinary person like her, opportunities to watch a commercial battle were extremely rare. Now that Shi Xinyu had stirred things up, she would become a first-person, immersive viewer of a business war.
After checking a few more hot topics, Ying Miaomiao realized that it wasn’t that Hengyu Group didn’t want to suppress the trends; it was that they had tried but failed.
She reveled in the sea of gossip.
Yet, she still felt unsatisfied. People like that father and son with the surname Zhou should be arrested to learn their lesson.
Shi Xinyu’s lips had only touched that water, and the drug was so potent. She couldn’t imagine how much damage it would have done to her body if she had drunk it all.
But—
Ying Miaomiao opened the red software (likely a social media or forum app). She slowly clicked on the search interface. Her most immediate concern was finding ideas on how a cat could turn back into a human.
She quietly used Shi Xinyu’s phone to post a question.
“How do I turn back into a human after becoming a cat?”
…
Time seemed to have been stolen.
Every time Ying Miaomiao woke up, she felt hazy. How long had she been a cat?
April 1st, rain.
The Qingming Festival brought drizzles. The good weather in March hadn’t lasted long before turning into continuous gloomy rain.
In a southern city, the season Ying Miaomiao dreaded most was probably the plum rain season.
Clothes never seemed to dry, wood products always grew mold, and humid water vapor condensed into droplets on walls or floors. The air itself seemed permeated with an enduring smell of mildew.
The Qingming Festival was approaching. Before the holiday, Shi Xinyu had been busy for a while. Perhaps to better enjoy the break, they had been working overtime for the past few days.
Shi Xinyu hadn’t brought Ying Miaomiao to the company either.
Ying Miaomiao felt so bored she was starting to feel like she would grow mold like the creatures in the corners.
The weather was gloomy. She listlessly leaned against the sofa watching TV, her tail swatting the sofa, a clear sign of impatience.
Shi Xinyu said she would be home early today, so why wasn’t she back yet?